MY FIRST BOOK “GET IT WHILE YOU CAN” NOW IN ITS THIRD PRINTING
My memoir Get It While You Can came out in 2015. It is now in its third printing, with 25 additional pages of new material and a new cover.
This little book was an Oregon Book Award finalist and has taken me all over the world, reading from it in libraries, bars, living rooms, and galleries. I remember once depositing a bunch of ones and fives at a bank in Alaska and the teller asked what I did for a living. I tried to think of the most honest answer.
“I read love letters to strangers.”
This is a collection of unsent love letters, lists of sadnesses, stories of playing and listening to music, and being as human as possible.
2026 Writing WORKSHOPS
NEXT Workshop startS Tuesday, MARCH 10th
You can sign up for any one unit or join for the whole year. Each six week unit is a great container for generating new writing, gaining new tools, and meeting a group of other writers doing the same thing. I’ve seen so many important friendships and collaborations form in these workshops, and a mountain of incredible writing.
These classes focus on everything from reawakening your creativity after a long dormancy all the way through submitting for publication and imagining the structure of your own book.
SPEKTRUM is a unique walk through a strange landscape. Told mostly in second person, it feels like a dream narrated to you.
2022
Fiction
152 pages
$17
Hitomi is a novel about a tour across the United States where someone is missing their best friend and also in love with their bandmate.
2020
Fiction
320 pages
$20
Get It While You Can is a memoir, a Nick Jaina origin story, and a collection of unsent love letters.
Now in its Third Edition with new material.
2015/ 2026
Memoir
213 pages
$20
NICK Jaina
Nick Jaina is a musician and author originally from Sacramento who has lived in Portland, New York, and New Orleans. He was an Oregon Book Award finalist in 2015 for his memoir Get It While You Can, which is now in its third printing.. His writing has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, McSweeney's Quarterly and the journal Oregon Humanities. He has released many wonderful albums under his own name, including 2025’s The Monster Mash. He co-founded and was music director for a ballet company in New York City called Satellite that involved dancers from Juilliard and the New York City Ballet and performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, garnering praise from The New York Times. He has composed scores for feature films and documentaries, including All Sorts, Cement Suitcase, and Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire.